Athletes - Dave Roberts

Home > Listing Index > Athletes > Dave Roberts

	Athletes - Dave Roberts

Dave Roberts, born David Ray Roberts (May 31, 1972 in Okinawa, Japan), is a Major League Baseball center fielder who plays for the San Diego Padres. Previously, he played with the Cleveland Indians (1999-2001), Los Angeles Dodgers (2002-04) and Boston Red Sox (2004). Roberts bats and throws left-handed. He is the son of a retired Marine (Waymon Roberts) and a Japanese mother (Eiko) and was raised in San Diego, California.

High School Years

Roberts attended Rancho Buena Vista High School in Vista, California, where he was a standout in football, basketball, and baseball. In football, he was a three year starter at quarterback and as a senior, helped lead his team to the San Diego Section Class 3A championship.

Major League Baseball Career

In a six-year career, Roberts is a .259 hitter with 11 home runs, 99 RBI, and 135 stolen bases in 422 games.

Roberts has a good knowledge of the strike zone. He has no power, but is a spray hitter who uses raw speed to get on base and stretch singles to doubles. He is a terror once he gets on base, commonly manufacturing runs by stealing second base, moving to third on a grounder, and coming home on a sacrifice fly. Only two players have stolen more bases than him over the last three seasons. Roberts' weaknesses include being overly aggressive, such as unwisely attempting to extend a hit or steal third base and running into outs, and being extremely injury-prone. Roberts has exceptional range in the outfield, but his below-average arm occasionally allows opponents to take extra bases on him.

Before the 2005 season, Roberts was dealt to San Diego for veteran Jay Payton. The speedy Roberts looks perfect to roam the spacious outfield at Petco Park.

Milestone

Roberts made a significant number of contributions to the Red Sox first World Series
win in 86 years. The most notable was his stolen base against the Yankees in the ALCS Game 4. Facing elimination in the bottom of the ninth inning down 4 runs to 3, Kevin Millar
drew a walk from Mariano Rivera
. Roberts, who had not played in 10 days, came in to pinch run. Rivera threw over to first base three times (the last almost picked off Roberts), and on the next pitch, Roberts managed to steal second base. Bill Mueller
followed with a single, Roberts scored, and the Sox went on to win in 12 innings and begin their run of eight straight wins culminating in the World Championship title.

The following night, in Game 5, Roberts ran for Millar again in the eighth inning after Millar walked. With the Red Sox again trailing 4-3 and Tom Gordon
on the mound for the Yankees. Although Roberts never stole second, his presence on first base was enough to split Gordon's attention, and he seemed to focus on keeping Roberts from stealing as he had the night before than in pitching to Trot Nixon
at the plate. Nixon singled to center and the speed of Roberts allowed him to advance to third base, where he would score the tying run on a Jason Varitek
sacrifice fly. The Red Sox would win the game in the 14th inning on a David Ortiz
single. This often-forgotten contribution is overshadowed by the stolen base in Game 4 but was just as valuable and important to the Red Sox comeback. Roberts is often thought of, along with Nippy Jones (See: 1957 World Series) as the most important postseason player ever, that has no career postseason hits.

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Dave Roberts ]

This page is based on the copyrighted Wikipedia article Dave Roberts; it is used under the GNU Free Documentation License. You may redistribute it, verbatim or modified, providing that you comply with the terms of the GFDL.

Searches on eBay